Introduction to WSDL

presented by Xiang Fu

Source
WSDL 1.1 specification
http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl

WSDL 1.2 working draft

http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl12/

W3C School Tutorial

http://www.w3schools.com/wsdl/wsdl_intro.asp

What is WSDL
Web Service Description Language.
An XML language used to describe and
locate web services.

Written in XML.
Describe functionality of a web service
Specify how to access the service (binding
protocol, message format, and etc.)

Not a W3C standard yet.

Version 1.1 released March 2001

Working draft of Version 1.2 released July 2003

Related Standards
Type System: XML Schema
Name space: XML namespaces
Binding: SOAP, HTTP, MIME and etc.

The Main Structure of WSDL

<definition namespace = http/ >
<type> xschema types </type>
<message> </message>
<port> a set of operations </port>
<binding> communication protocols </binding>
<service> a list of binding and ports </service>
<definition>

Types
<types> define types used in

message declaration
XML Schema, DTD, and etc.
XML Schema must be supported by
any vendor of WSDL conformant
products.

<types>
<schema targetNamespace="http://example.com/stockquote.xsd"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/XMLSchema">
<element name="TradePriceRequest">
<complexType>
<all>
<element name="tickerSymbol" type="string
minOccur = 1 maxOccur=10/>
<element name = payment>
<complexType> <choice>
<element name = account type=string>
<element name = creditcard
type=string>
</choice> </complexType>
</element>
</all>
</complexType>
</element>
</schema>
</types>

WSDL Messages
The <message> element defines the

data elements of an operation.

Each messages can consist of one or more
parts. The parts can be compared to the
parameters of a function call in a
traditional programming language.

<message name="GetLastTradePriceInput">
<part name="body" element="TradePriceRequest"/>
</message>
<message name="GetLastTradePriceOutput">
<part name="body" element="TradePrice"/>
</message>

WSDL Ports
The <portType> element is the most important

WSDL element.
It defines a web service, the operations that can
be performed, and the messages that are involved.
The <port> defines the connection point to a web
service, an instance of <portType>.
It can be compared to a function library (or a
module, or a class) in a traditional programming
language. Each operation can be compared to a
function in a traditional programming language.

<portType name="StockQuotePortType">
<operation name="GetLastTradePrice">
<input message="tns:GetLastTradePriceInput"/>
<output
message="tns:GetLastTradePriceOutput"/>
</operation>
</portType>

Operation Types
The request-response type is the most common
operation type, but WSDL defines four types:

One-way: The operation can receive a message but

will not return a response
Request-response:The operation can receive a
request and will return a response
Solicit-response:The operation can send a request
and will wait for a response
Notification:The operation can send a message but
will not wait for a response
-- v 1.2 addition
request multiple response

One way and Notification

Example
<portType name=RegisterPort">
<operation name=register">
<input name=customerInfo" message=RegInfo"/>
</operation>
<operation name = register Response>
<output name = response message=ResponseInfo/>
</operation>
</portType >

Binding
Binding defines how message are

transmitted, and the location of the

service.

<binding name="StockQuoteSoapBinding"
type="tns:StockQuotePortType">
<soap:binding style="document"
transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
<operation name="GetLastTradePrice">
<soap:operation
soapAction="http://example.com/GetLastTradePrice"/>
<input>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</input>
<output>
<soap:body use="literal"/>
</output>
</operation>
</binding>

<service name="StockQuoteService">
<documentation>My first service</documentation>
<port name="StockQuotePort"
binding="tns:StockQuoteBinding">
<soap:address
location="http://example.com/stockquote"/>
</port>
</service>

WSDL and UDDI

Description of web service.

Discovery of web service?
UDDI yellow page.

What is UDDI
UDDI is a platform-independent framework for

describing services, discovering businesses, and

integrating business services by using the
Internet.
UDDI stands for Universal Description, Discovery
and Integration
UDDI is a directory for storing information about
web services
UDDI is a directory of web service interfaces
described by WSDL

How can UDDI be Used

If the industry published an UDDI standard for

flight rate checking and reservation, airlines could

register their services into an UDDI directory.
Travel agencies could then search the UDDI
directory to find the airline's reservation
interface.
When the interface is found, the travel agency
can communicate with the service immediately
because it uses a well-defined reservation
interface. (by WSDL)

Whats missing?
Quality of service. (how fast, how reliable?)
Smart Searching (currently business code
match)
DAML-S project.
DARPA Agent Markup Language for web Services.
Describes control flow
Quality of service.
Support smart discovery of service
Ontology based technology.
A big dictionary defining the relations between concepts.
e.g. vehicle car truck

Problems
Complex long running web services.
Communication infrastructure
Asynchronous communication

Analysis and verification

Automatic composition of complex
services.